Running the cloth over the smooth muscles of his chest she watched as his eyes closed in pleasure. She ran it slowly over his nipples and then down his rippling torso, his eyes flaring open when she neared his sex.
“Come here, Beauty. I want your lips now,” he commanded.
When she hesitated, he grabbed her and pulled her into the water with him barely giving her a chance to squeal when she was submerged. He rolled on top of her quickly and buried his tongue in her mouth, pressing her against him hard. The flimsy white gown might as well have been nonexistent now since it was wet and every curve of her body was visible. She felt her nipples tighten almost painfully against his chest as the stiffness between her legs threatened pleasure beyond words. Growling, he bit her neck and forced himself against her in the water, sliding over her folds with nothing but the sheerest of fabric between them. Shivers went up and down her spine as his mouth explored her flesh through the nightgown and she trembled against his touch. The length of him against her was growing by the second, and it had her burning up with a fever to feel it.
“Morkain” she panted as his mouth consumed her breasts. “Please, not yet.”
His hard sex was against her and she could feel his hips thrusting, coming closer each time to entering her.
“Why not? Don’t you like this?”
He kissed her again, much more slowly this time, his tongue exploring her mouth with a restrained determination.
“I want you so much. These have been the most torturous days of my very long life. I’m going crazy, please, I need your flesh in my mouth; your soul branded to mine. Can’t you see how consumed I am?”
He pulled back and looked at her, shaking with visible restraint.
Oh yes, she could see his desire. It seeped from his every pore. Did her body respond to him? Yes. Should she allow this a little further? Her body ached the answer.
Her legs were wrapped around him and he was so close, another small move and he would be inside of her. She could feel his large tip against her sweetest spot, only separated by the flimsy wet cloth, and God, did it feel good. Her own body was arching against him and she was so close to oblivion.
His hot breath whispered words into her ear of his native tongue.“Life will be perfect when you make your choice, you’ll see. Everything will be as it should have always been.”
He didn’t know that she could understand him, and his words soothed her like a mother singing to her child would soothe. Her mother! She snapped out of the bliss he’d brought her to immediately.
“I’m just not quite ready yet, please,” she whimpered, her cheeks flush with passion.
“Gods, female! The fate of the worlds rests with you and you can’t see what’s right in front of your face! Has he marked you already? I can’t fathom what you see in that ridiculous faerie above me…a real man! This decision is really a no brainer, especially after your vision, or have you forgotten your mother already?” he hissed at her.
Pain and anger registered all over her face as she threw him and all his glorious weight right off of her. “I’m also a ridiculous faery, you jerk, and so is the mother that I most certainly have not forgotten about. I had another vision for your information, and I might as well be trying to decipher ancient hieroglyphics as clear as they both have been!”
She stood there in the tub with her arms crossed over her chest, seething with anger. “I want dry clothes right now, Morkain.”
He rose up out of the water, all six and a half feet of him…and that was not counting the bit between his legs. His anger cast a dark sheen to his eyes but he just stepped out of the tub and threw a dry cloth at her before he stormed out of the room and slammed the door. Not before demanding she not go anywhere, of course.
“Asshat!” she screamed to the shut door. There was no way she was supposed to spend eternity with this one, she couldn’t even spend a few hours with him! She tied the towel around her chest and stormed out onto the balcony and overlooked her Albequen. Isabel wanted to go home, if there was such a place anymore. She wanted to smell her mom’s peach cobbler and recite poetry from the window where the damned Unseelie broke it. She wanted her dad—the one that raised her—to give her one of his great big bear hugs and tell her she was perfect, just the way she was. Nostalgia crept into her heart and tears began to fall. How could this be her life? With this beast that she seemed to inconvenience with her presence every time she was here?
She heard the door open and shut much quieter than it had the last time, and tried to stop the tears, but couldn’t. She was frustrated, homesick, and overwhelmed with the weight of the worlds.
He approached her slowly and offered a new dress when she turned to him. “I’m sorry, Isabel. I shouldn’t have said the things that I did. You didn’t choose this and it was wrong of me to behave like that. Please understand that this is just so frustrating for me.” He ran his long fingers through her hair and tucked it behind her ears. “Please, stop crying.”
Tears continued leaking from her eyes and she took the dress, walking back into the chamber to put it on. With her back to him she slipped it over her head, ever aware of his eyes on her. His choice now? A lilac fabric, cut low again in the front and the back. If her breasts were not as full as they were she would be spilling right out of this. It didn’t seem made for her, since it dragged on the ground. Again, Bodhe came to mind. He had an entire closet full of clothes that she not only loved, but that fit her perfectly from what little she’d worn and seen. Morkain wasn’t crazy rich that she knew of though, so maybe he was doing what he had the means to do.
“Morkain, I want to get to know you. Is that so unreasonable?” She glanced at him. If he was the one she was spending eternity with, then she needed to make an effort, too, but she wasn’t going to just fall into his bed and choose him because of that vision; her heart would have to be in it somewhat, as well. The problem was, with only a few days left with each of them, she was going to have to learn as much as possible. Maybe then, and only then, would her mother’s words make sense.
He eyed her from the balcony and took in a deep breath. “What is it that you feel the need to know?”
“Well, for one, what’s my place here in these lands and why have I not met my grandmother?”
Isabel walked out to the balcony and stood next to him, thankful that he was wearing pants again.
“Your place here is as the Princess of Albequen and when Queen Lorelei steps down from the throne, your place is to rule these lands. It was a matriarchal line for generations, before your father was born. Of course, that would change if you were royalty in Loveryn.”
No shit, really? Kinda hard to rule two places at once. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared out toward the city instead of looking at him. She didn’t feel like a ruler of any kind, and would give it all up for some clarity on these two men.
“As for the second question, the Queen is eagerly awaiting your introduction but she is being patient due to the curse. Because of the magic that is woven within it, we must be careful who you meet in the realms. It was decided that when you came it would be only the males that you would meet so that there would not be any sway in your decision.”
Right, too late for that with the visions in both lands. Hello? Her mother was in an eternal sleep because of this. She would say that was a pretty big decision swayer. She turned to face him so she could see his eyes, even though it was difficult to look into them without heat blazing through her. But she had questions that needed answers.
“How did my father die?” She looked at him squarely, daring him to speak anything but the truth. He flinched just slightly, she noticed, and then sighed before looking away from her again.
“Are you sure you’re ready to hear that story?” he asked, without looking at her.
“Yes. I know so little of him.”
“Okay,” he said as he looked down and laced his fingers together, “Norgelon was in Loveryn when a Sidhe child went missing, her name was Serafina
. It’s rare that such a young Fae-such a young Sidhe,” he corrected himself, “would be permitted to wander alone, because the protections of Loveryn only reach out in that realm. Serafina was a very gifted Sidhe though, and even as a child she needed little watching over from what I know. Anyway, she had wandered past the edges of the realm somehow and ended up on a ledge of the western cliffs; on a log that jutted out from the embankment. She couldn’t fly off of it because she was so young and she was scared. Your father came along just in time. He saved the child, but unfortunately fell to his death in the ravine because the log couldn’t hold them both and as you know, Elves can’t fly. Your father is a brave hero among the people of Loveryn, and he was well loved here too, obviously. It was a tragedy in the worst sense, especially since the Queen only had one child.”
My people too, Morkain, and you turned out okay because of his death. She thought. As she did think that, chills swept over her skin and she shook the morbid thoughts away.
“But I thought immortals could only be killed by beheading?”
He looked at her grimly. “Most of them yes, that’s the case. But Elves are a little different. If the injuries sustained are substantial and not healed in time, then we can die. Your father fell a few hundred feet into a shallow, rocky gorge. There was nothing that anyone could do for him. I’m sorry, Isabel.”
She just looked out over the lights of the city and nodded her head. She needed to know about her father and no one had told her yet how it happened. It made her feel good to hear that he was a hero and that he loved her mother so much. He had been a good man, and that made her heart send waves of joy through her chest. Oh, how she would’ve liked to meet him, though. She sighed and turned back to Morkain.
“Did you like him?”
He looked at her strangely for a moment then his features softened. “Yes, of course I did. Everyone liked Prince Norgelon. And the two of us were raised like brothers together since I lost my family very young—I was just a babe when my parents died. I would think that our bond went much deeper than most because of that.”
He’d lost his parents too? That must have been hard on him. She appreciated his kindness and wouldn’t have thought he would be so gentle with his words. Sometimes he really could be nice, after all.
“I’m sorry for your loss, I understand it, truly. I know that it doesn’t mean anything when someone says that after you lose someone you love, mostly it’s just people trying to be kind when they don’t know what else to say, but I really am sorry. I lost my parents, too. My mortal ones that raised me, and Norgelon, since I’ll never get to meet him now.” She blinked away moisture in her eyes and then looked back at him. “I think I would like to walk awhile, if that’s okay?” she asked. As she looked at him she noticed that his hardened features looked especially pleasing in the moonlight, when he wasn’t being a brute.
“It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and I don’t even remember them. My mother is the Queen, as far as I know,” he paused and looked at her, brushing a lock of wet hair from her face and sending gentle flames down into her gut. “Let us walk then.” He grabbed her hand and walked her down the staircase again and out a second door this time, bypassing the garden she had previously gone to. They walked along an empty field in silence before coming to a small waterfall and pool. She lay down in the grass and stared up at the stars.
It was so beautiful here. Being from a world with so much electricity and lights, you never notice all of the things that you’re missing until you see them clearly. Like the twinkling of a million stars above your head. Of course, the forest of Montreat had a magnificent view of those, but it still didn’t compare to this…at all. Was that because there weren’t two moons in her sky, or just because the very air here seemed to be cleansing to the soul? These worlds seem so untouched in their beauty—and she held her hand against her heart for a moment as she took in this foreign sky. He laid down next to her and propped himself up on one elbow.
“So tell me, what would be happening in your life going forward if this curse hadn’t been placed?”
He watched her for a moment before responding, then plucked a piece of grass and began tearing it gently and letting it fall to the ground.
“Well, without an heir to the throne the Queen would have to choose someone not of her blood to rule, or have another child, which she seems to have no plans for. The chosen would probably be me since I was raised by her, too, but I don’t really care much for all of that. Even being her advisor and Captain of the Guard is sometimes far too much politics for me. I’m a warrior at heart and ruling the kingdom would probably bore me to tears.” He paused a moment, then added, “She’s a wise ruler, and would only step down if she was sure she was leaving Albequen in capable hands. But I don’t care one way or another if she chooses me.”
He just lied. That much she could see in his eyes, and hear in the soft inflections that changed in his voice. He loved this kingdom and did want it to be his—not that there was anything wrong with that. The palace was his home, and had been his entire life. The entire world here was a place beyond her wildest imagination the little bit she’d wandered here. She didn’t think he was lying to hide anything. Maybe it was done out of a feeling of humility, or not knowing if he deserved that after what happened to her father.
“Besides, she does have an heir to the throne so none of that matters. Even if you’re unwilling to accept that right now. We can’t fight fate, Beauty. It will be as it should be.”
“So you would rise to the throne even without me then, if I chose not to take it?”
He let his hand trail over her hair and down her ears, small ripples of pleasure in each gentle touch. “I would in either case, yes.”
So he stood to gain nothing from lying to her. Why couldn’t she just let go with him? She wanted to. She wanted to take Amele’s advice and let him have his way with her too, but even with the thrills and chills it was missing something. The vision of the future that she saw kept plaguing her mind though, so she let herself further into his heat. Just the small touch of him running his hand through her hair was causing her to tremble a little.
Why couldn’t just one of them be a little bit less attractive than the other? They were polar opposites in looks and in the way they made her feel. She closed her eyes and willed away more thoughts of Bodhe’s face, seeing the strong curves of Morkain instead. She gasped when his hand touched her stomach, rising up to her throat and then to her face…so gentle and sweet.
“Open your eyes and look at me,” he said hoarsely.
She did. His large hand was cupping her face tenderly and his eyes were piercingly blue again. Heat consumed her from the inside out and her mouth opened on a moan. She could feel the change in her eyes as she became turned on, and knew he was looking at the golden version of them.
“How did you get this scar?” she asked, tracing it with her fingertips finally, and finding some courage to ask him about it.
Morkain winced as she touched it, his eyes warring when they looked at her. He let his forehead dip down to hers and just stayed there a moment, his hot breath fanning her cheek.
“It was the day your father died. When I tried to get to him in the gorge I slipped on the rope I was scaling the rock face on and I fell too…but not nearly as far. I wish it had been me that day, instead of him. With all my heart, I do.”
Isabel opened her mouth to speak but the pain she saw in his eyes was crushing her heart. What a horrible day that must have been, losing his brother, and nearly losing his own life. He must have fallen hard to scar that way. He carried so much guilt, it’s no wonder he was so hardened by all of this.
His rough palms ran down her face and touched her gently as her eyes continued to tear up. He brought his heated mouth to hers and kissed her slowly, letting his mouth show her what he wanted her to feel. God, he was so good at this. But then, he probably had a lot of practice, too. She told her mind to shut up so she could lose herself for a moment. His kiss was deep
, and slow, and filled with pain. The moan that escaped her when he took a breath couldn’t be helped. At this moment she felt every bit of his remorse…or maybe it was hers, she didn’t know. All she knew was that she felt so much darkness and loss in his touch. It consumed her, and she wanted it to.
Fire raged from her stomach and traveled wherever his hand went, and currently it was reaching beneath the fabric of her dress to play with her hardened nipples. His groan of approval only mounted her pleasure and his hand became more daring. It slipped down the length of her dress and began pulling up the fabric, the warm breeze touching her thighs. He never let go of her mouth, never gave her a chance to protest. When his hand rose to the wetness between her legs they both let out a moan, and he bit at her lip.
“You can’t tell me that you don’t want me, Beauty,” he whispered, “the proof is all over my hand.”
He began to rub his thumb over the little nub that sent shockwaves through her, and her body arched up to him. When he reached inside her with one of his fingers, it was all she could do to not to scream.
“Yes, I do want you,” she said, words dripping with truth.
The flurry of heat was too much to bear. He stroked her inside and out with equal mastery and nibbled her neck as he did so. Freeing one of her breasts from the fabric he took that into his mouth too, sucking her and growling.
“Oh, my God,” she stammered, her eyes rolling back into her head.
His body slid closer to her and she could feel the size of his erection against her leg. How her body wanted to be filled with him. The image of him standing out of the bath just made her moan more, forgetting everything for a moment that was happening in the realms.
Immortal Dreams (Immortal Realms Book 1) Page 21
